This will be the topic on 10pm new fox tonight.......captions states that c-diff and mrsa can live on scrubs. That being said.....what is your take on wearing scrubs out in public places????
When I leave work which is usually after midnite....i usually go straight home, but on occasion I have gone to a take out..
When we have a patient with c-diff or mrsa we usually wear precaution gown along with the standard precautions.
Every time I am at the mall,I ALWAYS see someone in scrubs shopping for clothes next to me.. if those scrubs have come in contact with anything gross,I surely don't want to try on clothes anymore. However, I DO know that dental receptionist or the MA behind the desk at the doctors wears scrubs and they have little contact with pts. I have never worn a set of scrubs to anywhere but home and my place of employment. I don't want to be publicly identified as a medical professional anyway hahaha.
Scrubs belong at work only. Whether or not someone knows who I am, I don't want to be a party to spreading disease. I am willing to say something to a business that has people with scrubs shopping. I am not willing to be next in line for picking up what they dropped off and I will say so.
Most of us are not wearing hospital-issued scrubs. We're wearing the scrubs that we own and leave the house in every morning. Sorry, I don't have the luxury of (or the time to) be dragging extra clothes to work with me every day just in case I want to go somewhere after work. Nor do I have a locker.
What I DO, is take standard precautions at work. Known infected patient? Gown. Handwashing between each patient. I couldn't tell you the last time I got nasty stuff on my clothes. As someone previously said, the visitors who spend the day with the patients and don't wash their hands, are probably more likely than me to carry germs into the general population. Then again, I think that all of us carry around a lot of germs no matter where we work, because we all come in contact with sick people, well people, doorknobs, phones, and grocery cart handles that have been touched by who-knows-who, etc.
I wear my scrubs home, but I change in the garage and won't wear my
shoes or scrubs in the house. I feel that the front of my scrubs are
most dirty. I also use a special mat for my car so GERMS won't get on my carpet. I've had foleys that leak that I've stepped in, and probably who knows what else lives on the bottom of my shoes.
I remember my microbiologist teacher; he was dead set against wearing
Ahh yes, an article from someone at the wonderful Hudson institute. A crappy, neocon thinktank with little credibilty.
Give me a break! :) Scrubs are not a hospitable environment for stuff like that, and unless someone is literally licking your scrubs they are very unlikely to pick up something from them. Sure, immunocompromised people are at risk, but no more so because of your scrubs than anything else in their environment.
Most nurses have had to take microbiology, so I'm almost embarrassed that so many of them have no idea about these things. Have you ever swabbed your cell phone? What about the inside of your shoes? What about your steering wheel? They are all crawling with countless bugs, but guess what? That's why you evolved with an immune system.
I hate to burst your bubble, but you already eat about two pounds of flies, maggots, and mites each year. :) Yep, it's in our food! Almost no one gets sick from that, so people really need to just relax and enjoy life. It's too short to live bathed in hand sanitizer that doesn't work, plus a stroke from being worried about stuff outside your control.
Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.
I bet everyone gives me the hairy eyeball when I got to the store BEFORE work, to pick up yet another $20 worth of "someone's birthday at work" foodies.
I generally don't wear them out after work because at 7am all I want to do is go to bed.
Specializes in CVICU, Burns, Trauma, BMT, Infection control.
Or, watching from the nurses station... and betting if a Doc will put on PPE prior to entering iso. I've seen many that do not - and it don't matter if airborne, droplet, or contact either. Even when PPE is nicely set on wall shelves in abundance right outside each and every room. Yukky! Lets not shake hands, and say we did, right?! :icon_roll
Doctors.residents,medical students are immune to all germs do ya know? I love when they go into the isolation rooms,use their own stethoscope while leaning over the pt,their tie is laying on the pt and their coat is touching the bed. So they put their now contaminated stethoscope around their neck maybe wash their hands and walk out of the room and say when you ask them about PPE that they "didn't really touch the pt". :angryfire:banghead:
Then they go into the fresh post op's room check out the incision and wonder why a few days later that the incision is now purulent.
Let's face it, there are GERMS EVERYWHERE!!!!!!! No matter what we do, we cannot get rid of them. I like the one point someone made about family members who visit their loved ones who have droplet or contact precautions..most of those patients have MRSA. Yes, they go back home, or to the store, or even out to a restaurant after visiting a loved one. At my facility, we were PPE with all patients, even when they are not in "isolation". So when you think about it, when I take off that gown, my scrubs are nice and clean.
Ahh yes, an article from someone at the wonderful Hudson institute. A crappy, neocon thinktank with little credibilty.
Give me a break! :) Scrubs are not a hospitable environment for stuff like that, and unless someone is literally licking your scrubs they are very unlikely to pick up something from them. Sure, immunocompromised people are at risk, but no more so because of your scrubs than anything else in their environment.
Most nurses have had to take microbiology, so I'm almost embarrassed that so many of them have no idea about these things. Have you ever swabbed your cell phone? What about the inside of your shoes? What about your steering wheel? They are all crawling with countless bugs, but guess what? That's why you evolved with an immune system.
I hate to burst your bubble, but you already eat about two pounds of flies, maggots, and mites each year. :) Yep, it's in our food! Almost no one gets sick from that, so people really need to just relax and enjoy life. It's too short to live bathed in hand sanitizer that doesn't work, plus a stroke from being worried about stuff outside your control.
Actually quiet contrary.My very smart phd micro professor told me not to wear scrubs outside work.I think he knows what he is talking about given his credentials.
Actually quiet contrary.My very smart phd micro professor told me not to wear scrubs outside work.I think he knows what he is talking about given his credentials.
And my very smart PhD micro professor told us not to worry about it, and gave us a lot of evidence and proof as to why. :) We swabbed a ton of different things and didn't find hospital scrubs to be any worse than basically anything else.
I can't think of any groceries that I touch with anything besides my (clean) hands when I go to the store, but then again, my hands aren't clean once I've grasped onto that grocery cart handle that 's been held by people with everything from a cold to probably MRSA to Hep C to AIDS- and people in the store aren't in the habit of touching my clothes- so I can't imagine what my scrubs could add to the funky mix that isn't already there. Especially since I take all standard precautions appropriately at work and wear gowns in iso rooms, etc. I don't get pts' body fluids on my clothes, or if I did, I'd get some fresh scrubs from housekeeping to wear because I wouldn't then want to go into other pts. rooms with them on either.
So, assuming my scrubs have had an "uneventful" day, I don't see a problem wearing them out. Then I can pick up all the groceries and soda cans, etc., that have been handled by people with all manner of germs on their hands...
I'm with the camp that says you just can't avoid germs. All you can do is bathe, wash your hands, wear fresh clothes every day, and take proper precautions at work. (How many times have I exchanged a handshake in church with the guy behind me who has been blowing his nose the whole time??? I just wash my hands after church and go on)....
Or, watching from the nurses station... and betting if a Doc will put on PPE prior to entering iso. I've seen many that do not - and it don't matter if airborne, droplet, or contact either. Even when PPE is nicely set on wall shelves in abundance right outside each and every room. Yukky! Lets not shake hands, and say we did, right?! :icon_roll
I can honestly say I've yet to see a doc don PPE before entering iso ...... N-A-S-T-Y !!!!! And I'm sure they don't get their ties dry cleaned every day....
changeofpaceRN
545 Posts
Every time I am at the mall,I ALWAYS see someone in scrubs shopping for clothes next to me.. if those scrubs have come in contact with anything gross,I surely don't want to try on clothes anymore. However, I DO know that dental receptionist or the MA behind the desk at the doctors wears scrubs and they have little contact with pts. I have never worn a set of scrubs to anywhere but home and my place of employment. I don't want to be publicly identified as a medical professional anyway hahaha.